Back in 1995, Marvel Comics declared April 28th to be National Superhero Day. At the time, it was meant to honor comic book superheroes like their own Captain America, Spider-Man, or Iron Man, among others.
And of course, if you so chose, those of their Distinguished Competitors (DC Comics) such as Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman, among others.
But over the years the celebrated day also came to honor anyone such as a teacher, police officer, or firefighter, among others, who might be a hero of super-proportions in their own right. I have no problem with that and know that there are those who find such people in their personal lives to be a hero to them.
I’ve stuck with the original concept of the day since, from the first time I picked up one of his comic books at the local drug store, Superman has been my favorite superhero. If you know me, you know that has always been. The very idea of Superman has always been something to strive for.; Truth, Justice and the American Way. Power combined with goodness, kindness and justice for all.
Something we are sorely lacking, but something we should all be striving for in our lives.
So take a moment on this National Superhero Day to think about and honor your own personal superhero, whether they be fictional or a real person in your life.
And if you’ve a mind to do so, I’d love for you to tell who your favorite superhero is in the comments below.
April 18, 1938 was the day Action Comics #1 (with a cover date of June 1938) hit newsstands across the country. Featuring the first comic book appearance of the superhero creation known as Superman as created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster.
I’ve been a fan of Superman since I first spotted one of the comics when I was just a wee lad. I don’t read many comic books these days, but I still love the character and what he has stood for throughout the years.
And if you’re a Superman fan, like me, you’re eagerly awaiting the July 11, 2025 of James Gunn’s new Superman movie in theaters around the U.S. and world.
This year, I’ll be spending Superman Day in Metropolis, Illinois. More than just a namesake for Superman’s fictional city of Metropolis, it is also the home of the Superman Museum, Superman statue, Lois Lane Statue, and the annual Superman Celebration each year in June.
It was 14 years ago today that Bella became part of our family. She was the second dog to join our household and, since Cindy and I just celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary, that means she has been with us for half the time we’ve been married. I thought I might look back on the years she’s been with us as we celebrate our 14th anniversary with Bella.
I’ve already mentioned how we came to have Bella in our lives in previous posts here and here.
But if you read our travel blog you know how important she is in our lives each and every day. The joy, love and comfort Bella brings to us day in and day out, up and down miles and miles of roads, and in campgrounds all over the country is difficult to quantify. She’s been silly, playful and comedic. She’s been a protector, a guard and a defender. She’s been a constant friend, companion, and sidekick for all our adventuring.
Bella never liked car trips. When we would drive from Orlando to our cabin in North Carolina or back, she would always get carsick. First it was regurgitation, then diarrhea. We would always have to make several stops early in the trip for her to go to the bathroom before she would get it out of her system and settle down.
So we worried about how she would do when we were driving from campground to campground across hundreds of miles of distance. But once we started she adjusted. It was almost like she figured out that this was life as it would be for a while. Now, she is never nervous about getting into “her seat” (which is a nice, comfy dog bed with her seat belt on and her peeps directly in front of her. In fact, on moving days, she is only nervous as we “pack it up and tear it down” UNTIL I pick her up and put her in her seat, slip her seat harness on, kiss her on the head and tell her she’s a good girl. Then she settles down for the length of the drive, mostly snoozing as we ride down the road.
She loves to go on walks at every campground we visit. When we get to a new one she is like an explorer; seeking out every new sight, sound and smell. Even today, in her later years, she has a spring in her step and her tail in the air as she sets out to see what’s in each new place. She equally loves every opportunity to sit outside with Cindy during the day, lying on her mat and soaking up the sun, breeze and scent of woods surrounding our site.
Bella is smart as a whip, but likes to pretend otherwise. She always gives me a knowing look when I say that to her. She also likes to pretend she can’t hear you if you’re telling her something she doesn’t WANT to hear. But if, while she’s napping or off in our bedroom, you open the creaky cabinet door where her treats are stored, she is there in a flash with her ears up and her tail wagging.
Below are some collages I’ve put together of Bella over the years. Choosing from hundreds of photos and remembering each event, adventure or memory was an incredibly joyful trip down a 14-year long memory lane. Suffice it to say that our mundane existence has been unbelievably enriched by Bella’s presence in our lives and home. If you have a furry family member, you know what I mean.
I hope you get as much enjoyment looking at the collages as I had putting them together.
Today would have been my father’s 100th birthday had he not passed away on December 2, 1999. Though he is never far from my everyday thoughts I, of course, find him front and center on his birthdate and the date he passed away.
April 9, 1925 was a Thursday in High Springs, Florida when James Mathew and Martha Maggie Wetherington welcomed their son James Edward into the world. He would be the youngest brother of George Carlton, Louise, Audrey and W.J. Wetherington. His mother would pass away within two years. His eyesight would be so bad that he would attend the School For The Blind in St. Augustine. I remember that both his brothers (my uncles) also had bad eyesight and, like him, would wear glasses with thick lenses; the kind we used to call “coke bottle glasses.”
Many years ago I saw a photo of my paternal grandfather and was amazed at how much alike we looked. I’ve always looked more like my mother than my father, but my grandfather and I looked very much alike. My grandfather passed away early in my father’s life and his sister Louise would be more like a mother to him during his younger years.
On what would have been his 100th birthday, here are some more.
I remember two stories my father told me about his youth. One was when he decided that he wanted to learn to chew tobacco like other, older males around him. I don’t remember if it was one of his brothers or not but someone took him out to a big oak tree near their home, gave him a “chaw” of tobacco and told him to start chewing it. After a while the other person told him, “Now, swallow it” so he did. He said he got SO sick from it (dizzy, nauseous, passing out) that he never ever wanted to chew tobacco again, which was what the other person was trying to accomplish. My dad eventually took up smoking, but he never, ever chewed tobacco again.
That photo is my dad, my mom and my baby brother shortly after his birth in 1962.
The other was when he was in school. Some kid behind his desk in class was bothering my dad and wouldn’t stop. This was in his early teen years. The school was undergoing some construction and there were some concrete blocks in the classroom area waiting to be used. He told the other boy to stop bothering him and the other boy kept poking at him verbally and physically. My dad finally said, “Look, if you don’t stop I’m going to bust one of those blocks over your head.” The boy laughed and kept it up. So my dad stood up, bent over and picked up one of the blocks, then raised it above his own head and brought it crashing down on the other boy’s head. He did indeed break the block and the other boy had his head split open. My dad got in a lot of trouble, he told me, though I don’t remember if he said what kind of trouble. The bigger point of the story to him was that the other boy never bothered him again. And if he told someone he was going to do something, they tended to believe him.
That photo is my dad and I on Christmas morning 1966 or 1967.
My father was never the smartest person in a room. I don’t think he went past the 9th grade in school. He did like to read the newspaper and watch the news on TV and he had his opinions about things he read and saw. I never thought my father was stupid (except maybe during that time in my life when all teens think their parents are dumb) but sometimes I think he felt that way when my brother and I were learning all kinds of things in school that he never imagined.
When I was four and five years old he would sit with me in his lap at the breakfast table on Sunday mornings and read me the color comics in the Sunday newspaper (remember those?). I clearly remember one Sunday morning he was reading but was leaving out some words. After I pointed out his omissions a few times he finally picked me up, stood me on the floor, handed me the comics section and said, “You don’t need me to read you these any more. You can do it better yourself.” I was unhappy but my mom told me years later it wasn’t my fault, it was just that it embarrassed him that his 5-year old son could read better than he did.
That photo is my Nana, my brother, my dad and my mom sometime in 1971.
Sometime after that I remember he took some night school courses. He may have even gotten his GED, but I don’t know that for sure. What I do know is that he tried.
One thing my dad was that I have never been and that is the friendliest person in a group. I often noted how he could walk into a room full of strangers and would have talked to all of them and known something about most of them before he left. He was gregarious and engaging. I always envied him for that. With some effort I can fake it and have done so in different jobs I’ve had, but it is not in my nature or my comfort zone. My default is to always sit or stand and watch in a group, engaging only if I must. Especially if it’s a group of strangers. But for my father it seemed no one was a stranger; just a friend he hadn’t made yet.
That photo is me, my dad and mom in August of 1999, about 4 months before he passed away.
I’m almost 70 years old now, but I still wish my dad was around. I think we’d have a lot more things in common to talk about now that I’m older and I’d love to hear more stories from him.
Eleven years ago today, April 5, 2014, Cindy and I drove down to Clearwater, Florida to visit my brother and have lunch at the Arigato Japanese Steak House on Countryside Boulevard. Sadly, Mark’s wife Pia was not with us because, if I remember correctly, she had flown back up to New York to spend time with their grandchildren.
Still, it looks like we managed to enjoy ourselves. If the photo is any indication.
Here’s a fun little thing. NASA has put up a website that will show you what the Hubble Telescope saw on YOUR birthday (or really, any day/month you submit) and describe what it saw for you. Obviously, if your birthdate was before May 20, 1990 when the very first image from Hubble was taken, there won’t be an image to show. That’s why you don’t enter a year, only a month and day
I put in the month and day of my birthday and here is what the Hubble Telescope saw on that date in 2011.
On July 2 in 2011
Necklace Nebula
The Necklace Nebula contains the glowing remains of an ordinary, Sun-like star shedding material at the end of its life. The nebula consists of a bright ring, measuring 12 trillion miles across, dotted with dense, bright knots of gas that resemble diamonds in a necklace.
It was the last Sunday of March 1997, an Easter Sunday though that meant little to us beyond that the following week was Spring Break from my classes so we could go on a honeymoon to Key West. March 30, 1997 was the start of a wonderful journey that proved the lyrics “When you love a woman, you see your world inside her eyes” to be true and that we each finally found someone. And it means today marks a Happy 28th Wedding Anniversary To Us!
I wrote about our wedding 10 years ago on our 18th anniversary in this post. I don’t have a lot more to add to that, except to look back on an additional decade of love with the most wonderful woman in the world.
Believe me, I know that not everyone gets as lucky as I did at this, and I am thankful beyond words that I was as fortunate as I have been. Building and living a life together with someone who loves you and understands you is a feeling that stays with you. It steadies you, warms you and makes you grateful that whatever fates there may be have seen fit to smile on you.
And I know, I know, it’s not always smooth sailing. There are and can be differences. No two people are going to be in agreement on everything. What’s the old saying?
“If two people agree all the time, one of them is unnecessary.”
We have each learned from the other. And over the past 28 years what sharp edge sticks out from one of us is found to fit into a soft curve of the other. My faults fit into her acceptance and understanding. As do hers into mine.
When I look back on the past almost three decades, it is like viewing a beautiful mosaic of multi-colored and different shaped pieces that form one beautiful whole. Things that may not have seemed to make sense at the time have been found to be some of the most colorful parts. Rough patches add to the smoothness, creating a picture of two lives joined into one.
Cindy, I love you so deeply. You make our lives the wonderful experience that we get to enjoy every day.
Cindy and I love pizza. At least at every other stop along our travels, we try to find a place to get some Italian Pie. And usually that is at Domino’s because they are so ubiquitious. So why No Mo’ Domino’s?
Here’s where we’re at when it comes to pizza chains. This does not apply to standalone pizza restaurants which are usually of a much higher quality, but also much higher price.
Neither of us like Papa John’s. It’s always tasted like cardboard with tasteless sauce and cheese. Your mileage may vary.
Little Caesar’s is “eh”, in that we’ll eat it if there’s nothing else available, but there usually is. Again, they may be your favorite.
Pizza Hut is good. We like it, although for some reason we prefer to eat it at their sit-down restaurants as opposed to taking it home from their carry-out locations.
Then there is a first place tie between Domino’s and Marco’s. I discovered Marco’s while deployed to Puerto Rico and then was glad to discover it is also on the mainland. But they don’t have always have locations where we’re stopped at.
So, it’s usually been Domino’s. It tastes (tasted) good, is usually a good value and is practically everywhere we travel (they have 5,469 locations in the U.S.). The taste and quality are almost always consistent, kinda like getting a burger at Culver’s.
But several months ago we started noticing something. When we would place our order online, there would be different sauce choices. Which is fine. I enjoy the Alfredo sauce on a feta and spinach pizza, but really have no desire to have Honey BBQ, Ranch or Garlic Parmesan sauces. For the most part we prefer good old-fashioned Hearty Marinara tomato-based pizza sauce with a flavor that doesn’t overwhelm the toppings or cheese taste. They also had a ROBUST Inspired Tomato Sauce.
Then a few months ago, we found that if we wanted Hearty Marinara pizza sauce, it would add a $1 to our cost for each pie. There was no extra cost if you ordered the ROBUST Inspired Tomato Sauce. That seemed a bit strange. We’re all about economy of existence, so we tried the ROBUST Inspired Tomato Sauce.
Way too spicy for our palettes! We tried it a couple of times to be sure it wasn’t a “one-off experience” but nope, it was too much. It overpowered the rest of the ingredients. So we started paying the $1 extra per pie. But then one of the locations only offered the ROBUST Inspired Tomato Sauce version, so we got our pies from Pizza Hut. The next place did offer the regular sauce with the upcharge, then the next several locations did not have it on the menu.
We haven’t been able to find a location that offers the Hearty Marinara sauce at all in the past couple of months. I know I have a “baby mouth” when it comes to spices but Cindy doesn’t. Yet we have both found that our mouths and tongues burn with the spicy overload of the ROBUST Inspired Tomato Sauce.
So we’ve finally had to say “No Mo’ Domino’s.” Again, you may love the ROBUST Inspired Tomato Sauce, but we have found it is not for us.
Our last few pizza stops have been at Marco’s when we can find one, and Pizza Hut, though usually at their carry-out locations.
I don’t know what led to the sauce change/exclusion at Domino’s, but for these two customers it has led us to their competitors in the chain pizza market.
So, until they return the Hearty Marinara sauce, it’ll be No Mo’ Domino’s for us.
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